Hatsubai « Unique bridge »
Published on 11/02/11 at 16:17The JDX-94 was always this kind of odd guitar that I never truly got along with. It's a fairly unique Jackson at some points, and on the other hand, it's right where Jackson usually deals their cards in other points. The guitar features a basswood body, a maple neck with a rosewood fretboard, 24 extra jumbo frets with dot inlays, a unique hard tail bridge, HSS configuration, one volume, one tone and a five way switch.
UTILIZATION
The one thing worth noting is that this bridge is odd. It's like a telecaster bridge at times. It has this metal base plate that comes over the humbucker, and it mounts in there. It creates a unique tone, but I'll get to that point later. The guitar had decent fretwork, but there were a few high and low frets on this. It would cause the guitar to fret out with lower action no matter how the truss rod was actually set. The ends of the frets weren't bad, so no issues there. The nut needed to be redone as the last person seems to have gouged it in some way. Not sure how they managed to do that, but regardless, it needed a new nut. The rest of the guitar was typical Jackson, including the very subtle neck joint gap that you can usually find.
SOUNDS
This is where the guitar is the most bizarre. You have a basswood body but a telecaster style bridge. The bridge made the bridge pickup sound really...twangy almost. To hear that kind of twang come from a humbucker in the bridge was just a bit unique and frankly, off putting. I'm more of a metal guy, and while I dig the hell out of teles, I don't really like to mix the two unless I'm doing something a bit different. This guitar definitely succeeded at the different part. The pickups in this are just standard off the shelf crappy stock pickups that Jackson loves to throw in their lower end guitars, and while they can deliver decent cleans, I'm not a fan of how they sound as a whole.
OVERALL OPINION
The guitar needs a pickup swap, and you have to be sure you like this kind of bridge. Being a floyd guy, it wasn't really my thing. This could be exactly what you're looking for, however, and if you think this is something you'd enjoy, check it out. They're decent guitars for the money, but they can be a real pain to find at times.
UTILIZATION
The one thing worth noting is that this bridge is odd. It's like a telecaster bridge at times. It has this metal base plate that comes over the humbucker, and it mounts in there. It creates a unique tone, but I'll get to that point later. The guitar had decent fretwork, but there were a few high and low frets on this. It would cause the guitar to fret out with lower action no matter how the truss rod was actually set. The ends of the frets weren't bad, so no issues there. The nut needed to be redone as the last person seems to have gouged it in some way. Not sure how they managed to do that, but regardless, it needed a new nut. The rest of the guitar was typical Jackson, including the very subtle neck joint gap that you can usually find.
SOUNDS
This is where the guitar is the most bizarre. You have a basswood body but a telecaster style bridge. The bridge made the bridge pickup sound really...twangy almost. To hear that kind of twang come from a humbucker in the bridge was just a bit unique and frankly, off putting. I'm more of a metal guy, and while I dig the hell out of teles, I don't really like to mix the two unless I'm doing something a bit different. This guitar definitely succeeded at the different part. The pickups in this are just standard off the shelf crappy stock pickups that Jackson loves to throw in their lower end guitars, and while they can deliver decent cleans, I'm not a fan of how they sound as a whole.
OVERALL OPINION
The guitar needs a pickup swap, and you have to be sure you like this kind of bridge. Being a floyd guy, it wasn't really my thing. This could be exactly what you're looking for, however, and if you think this is something you'd enjoy, check it out. They're decent guitars for the money, but they can be a real pain to find at times.